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Introducing Canto Aperto

CANTO APERTO
Plainchant Festival
Sint-Truiden (B) 21-23.IX.2012

Chant: a rediscovery

Plainchant, or briefly 'chant', is internationally reviving, and not only in the commercial CD-circuit, where recordings with varying degrees of 'authenticity' can be found. Chant is being rediscovered as a considerably rich, large, and varied repertory that not only carries the oldest roots of European music, but was also enriched through one and a half millennium of musical praxis. It attracts the attention of performers and musicologists from all over the globe.

CANTO APERTO: a new approach

A plainchant festival in itself is nothing new, but CANTO APERTO certainly is.

CANTO APERTO focuses on the diversity of both the repertory and its performance practice, on the diversities of regional traditions and their evolutions over time. No century is eschewed: the chant repertory composed over a period of 1,500 years knew different concepts and manners of performance in every century of its existence. This approach makes CANTO APERTO a unique festival in the Benelux and in Europe.

CANTO APERTO: international

The performance of, and research into chant attracts considerable attention from all over the world. The International Musicological Society has its own Study Group, "Cantus Planus", dedicated to chant, and the study of chant is mostly represented at musicological conferences, such as Kalamazoo (US), Leeds (UK), Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference (varying locations). Masterclasses, courses, workshops, and festivals are being organized all over Europe; ensembles specializing in 'early music' have a growing interest in the chant repertory of various periods. CANTO APERTO connects to this worldwide enthousiasm for chant and aims at contributing to an even more diversified palette of chant performance and programming.

CANTO APERTO: Festival Profile

CANTO APERTO takes its starting point from the diversity of 1,500 years of chant performance practice and repertory. Every edition focuses on one central theme. Through the successive editions, but not in a strictly chronological order, the festival works towards an 'overview' of the evolution of performance practices of chant, in which the local and regional element is represented as well. The festival stimulates on performance from reproductions or projection of chant manuscripts rather than from transcriptions, and wants to stimulate junior (pre)professional performers, ensembles, and scholars to explore new repertories.

To this end, every edition will also include a masterclass taking place during the festival.

CANTO APERTO is also open for the inclusion of related repertories of chant (such as the Coptic, Mozarabic, Greek traditions) in the festival programme when there is a sufficiently strong connection to the central festival theme.

 

Organizing partners: 

 

Program Committee: 

  • Herman Baeten, Bart De Vos (Musica)
  • Bart Demuyt, Pieter Mannaerts (Alamire Foundation KU Leuven)
  • Stefan Ottenbourgs (Villarte)
  • Eugeen Schreurs, Anne Mees (Resonant)